After winning two Indian national rally championship back to back in 2018 and 2019 First time participated in international rally
Only Indian privateer to participate for the first time without any factory support or sponsor in the Hispania rally 2020 the only desert rally in Spain
It was a 5 day rally completely based on Roadbook and other navigation system called as Stella
I participated on a 250 cc bike Total number of riders 190
Finished 5th place in my class which had pro and experienced riders Overall 66th out of 190 that includes bike upto 1200cc ( I was on a 250 ) And also lots of factory and pro riders
As was new to the rally Day 1 got a start position of 81st.To cover up places in overall was a big task to perform as need to eat a lot of dust from the riders ahead
Frankly it was navigation which helped me gain places in overall and my class. Even at speed of 130 you need to look down to your Roadbook for the upcoming instructions
Also an incident happened on day 3 Where a rider got expired during a transport stage and the race was called off for the day Finally we races 4 out of 5 day rally
Route : it was all mix of River beds / stony tracks / uphills / downhills / stretches where u can see dust up to a km
It was so tricky and challenging that one sec if you lose concentration you are down
Daily we need to be at Bivouac start around 6.30 -7 in morning which used to be around 0 degree temperature
Need to roll the Roadbook on the bike and prepare for start and the day race finishes and back to hotel by 5 (which was our lunch time)
Around 8 pm every day we use to receive Roadbook and followed by briefing and notifications for the changes to be made in Roadbook
Author :Jatin Jain
